3 questions for Men for 2023-24 season

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3 questions for Auburn basketball in the 2023-24 season

Published: Nov. 06, 2023, 6:15 a.m.

5–7 minutes

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The exhibitions and scrimmages are over. On Tuesday, head coach Bruce Pearl and Auburn basketball will begin its 2023-24 season against Baylor.

It’s a team Pearl believes is deep. It’s a team that can score in bunches. It’s a team with aspirations and potential to make another run in March.

It’s also a team with some key questions. We addressed a few of them here:

Can Auburn finally, FINALLY, make some 3s?

Last year, Auburn was 309th in the country in 3-point field goal percentage. It was also 218th in 3-pointers attempted per game. Auburn hasn’t had a team shooting percentage from beyond the arc better than 226th in the country since it went to the Final Four in 2019.

Shooting has been a massive weakness the last few years, and to win with a team that might not be good defensively (more on that below), Auburn will need to make some 3s.

That’s why Denver Jones is here. The FIU transfer scored more than 20 points per game last year and has a very natural jump shot. He was brought in to be Auburn’s 3-point shooter. After Auburn’s exhibition against Auburn-Montgomery on Nov. 1, he said Pearl is encouraging him to shoot often.

Though the exhibition wasn’t the best start for Auburn. Jones shot 4-8 on 3-pointers. The rest of the team shot 1-17. Auburn had many open shots, so some of the shooting struggles in the exhibition were just a bit of bad luck. Those open looks will move back toward the mean at some point. And Auburn still scored more than 100 points, though of course it greatly overmatched AUM.

“Tonight we didn’t shoot it very well,” Pearl said Wednesday. “Probably the worst we’ve shot it in a while. I’m not worried about it; we’re going to shoot it fine. Most of the shots we got were good shots and balls that I think are going to go in. I’m not worried about our shooting from the free-throw line or the 3-point line.”

Jones just needs some help. If someone can help him, Auburn’s offense has the ability to be elite.

What’s the bare minimum for Auburn’s defense?

Auburn’s offense could be elite, yes. But the defense has raised concerns.

“Our defense is really challenged,” Pearl said after the exhibition. “So I’m disappointed about it, and we’re going to have to continue to work on some things -- otherwise we’re not going to get stops.”

Auburn had allowed only 33% shooting to AUM, but that didn’t tell the whole story. Auburn’s defense was thoroughly inconsistent but did clamp down, especially late in the first half.

This is a roster full of athletes. Auburn can play a fast-paced game. It has the speed and the length to defend. Auburn just hasn’t put it together during the preseason and it’s been probably the biggest concern Pearl has raised during press conferences this fall.

The defense is going to take some time to come together. Losing Zep Jasper from last year’s team after he graduated certainly hurts Auburn’s defense. Jones and senior K.D. Johnson have been regarded as two of the team’s better defenders.

Auburn doesn’t appear, at least at this point, that it will ever have a level on the defensive end it will be able to fully rely on. But what level of defense is going to be the minimum to get things done? The defense will, hopefully, get better as the year goes on and if Auburn can figure things out there before March, this could be a team capable of making a run.

Auburn should be able to score. Is that going to be enough?

What does Auburn’s tournament resume look like by the end of non-conference play?

Auburn has one of the most challenging non-conference slates in the country. Not every team name is exactly a big name, but there are a slew of teams that should qualify for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Auburn will play Baylor, USC, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, either Oklahoma State or St. Bonaventure, and Indiana all before Christmas. There is a trip to Boone, North Carolina, to play a solid Appalachian State team and matchups against two very good mid-major programs in UNC Asheville and Chattanooga. March Madness team after March Madness team.

This will be a crucial period of Auburn to firstly, get tested against good teams before entering the deepest SEC stretch in years, and secondly build its own NCAA Tournament resume.

Taking advantage of a difficult non-conference schedule often ends up being a major talking point on Selection Sunday. What might be equally important is avoiding a bad loss. That could be either to one of Auburn’s Quad III or IV opponents, or a blowout loss to a power conference team.

Auburn won’t break it’s season in the non-conference slate, but it could make it. There is momentum to be gained here, and if Auburn can enter SEC play with confidence, with a strong record and improving play then it will be set up will for the conference gauntlet.

With how difficult the SEC looks to be, Auburn would certainly rather lighten the workload it has to do for its resume come January and February.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

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al.com

5 Auburn men’s basketball games to have circled on the calendar in 2023-24

Updated: Nov. 03, 2023, 8:34 a.m.|Published: Nov. 03, 2023, 7:50 a.m.

7–9 minutes

After giving fans a quick taste during Wednesday night’s exhibition game against Auburn-Montgomery, the next time Bruce Pearl and the Auburn men’s basketball team take the floor, they’ll be doing it for real.

And as the Tigers look to return to the NCAA Tournament and get more out of their time than a second-round exit, it won’t come easy.

Between a brutal nonconference slate and competing through another well-rounded-looking year in the SEC, Auburn will be tested in the regular season – from start to finish.

The Tigers are set to play 31 regular season games. Of those, here are five matchups that have the prospect of helping define Auburn’s 2023-24 season – the 10th under Pearl.

Nov. 7 vs. Baylor (Sioux Falls, S.D.)

Auburn wastes no time seeing a postseason-caliber opponent as the Tigers travel to Sioux Falls, S.D. for a neutral site matchup with the Baylor Bears, who were ranked 20th in the preseason AP poll, in the first regular season game of the 2023-24 season.

When Auburn sees Baylor at the Sanford Pentagon on Nov. 7, the Tigers will be seeing the first of four non-conference opponents who reached the NCAA Tournament last season. Baylor went on to advance into the second round as a No. 3 seed before being eliminated by Creighton.

However, this Baylor team is slated to look much different as it looks to replace all three of its starting guards from last season and five other roster members.

While the Bears return just 32% of their scoring from last season, they added a lot of young talent in freshmen guards Miro Little and Ja’Kobe Walter. The addition of Toledo transfer RayJ Dennis should also bolster the Bears as Dennis averaged 19.5 points per game and was the MAC Player of the Year.

Baylor also returns the production of forward Jalen Bridges, who led the Bears’ front court in 2022-23 averaging 10.3 points per game and leading the team in rebounds with 192.

Auburn’s matchup with Baylor likely won’t have much postseason implication, but it’ll serve as a great measuring stick to see how the Tigers stack up against a team that also appeared in the NCAA Tournament last March.

Dec. 17 vs. USC (Auburn)

When Auburn hosts the University of Southern California on Dec. 17, it’ll be as first as the Trojans have never visited The Plains.

That said, the matchup presents another opportunity for a “first” as Auburn’s men’s basketball team has yet to notch a win against USC, despite the programs meeting three times since 1972. The Trojans, who ranked No. 21 in the preseason AP poll, last beat the Tigers 74-71 in Los Angeles last December.

USC returns its leading scorer in guard Boogie Ellis, who averaged 17.7 points per game, while also retaining Kobe Johnson (9.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg) and Joshua Morgan (7.0 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 63 blocks).

All the while, the Trojans also added a marquee recruiting class, which featured the addition of Isaiah Collier and Bronny James – a 5-star and 4-star guard, respectively. USC also added an experienced forward in DJ Rodman, who joined the Trojans by way of Washington State, where he averaged 9.6 points per game.

Like Baylor, USC is looking to build on a 2022-23 season that saw it punch a ticket to the NCAA Tournament. The tenth-seeded Trojans went on to make a first-round exit after falling to No. 7 Michigan State.

USC’s pre-Christmas visit to Auburn presents itself as another opportunity for the Tigers to go toe-to-toe with another preseason top 25 team that has its sights set on another NCAA Tournament berth.

Jan. 24 and Feb. 7 vs. Alabama (Tuscaloosa and Auburn)

While this one kinda speaks for itself as the Iron Bowl of winter sports season, the fact that Alabama ended up being a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and reaching the Sweet 16 after beating Auburn twice in the regular season and winning the SEC last year just throws gasoline on a fire that’s always burning.

For the Crimson Tide, which ranked No. 24 in the preseason AP poll, this coming season is looking like it will be widely less eventful as it doesn’t have star freshman and eventual No. 2 overall draft pick in the NBA Draft, Brandon Miller, to bank on – controversy and all.

While the loss of Miller is the most notable as he led the team in scoring with 18.8 points per game, the Crimson Tide lose an enormous bulk of their production as it only returns three scholarship players from last year’s roster. Fortunately for Alabama, one of those guys is Mark Sears, who was the team’s second-leading scorer in 2022-23.

Having lost so much by way of the NBA Draft, graduation and the transfer portal, Alabama head coach Nate Oats dipped into the portal himself and came away with four-man transfer class which is led by big man Grant Nelson from North Dakota State and guard Aaron Estrada from Hofstra. Nelson finished last season just shy of a double-double average with 17.9 points per game and 9.3 rebounds per game, while Estrada averaged 20.2 points last season.

And while Auburn’s matchup always means a lot within the confined of the Yellowhammer State, the two-game series is bound have SEC seeding implications, too – especially that Feb. 7th matchup, which fortunately for Auburn, is set to be played in Neville Arena.

Feb. 28 at Tennessee (Knoxville)

Boasting a No. 9 preseason ranking in the preseason AP poll, the Tennessee Volunteers currently stand as Auburn’s highest-ranked opponent on the regular season slate. Tennessee is coming off a 2022-23 season which saw it secure a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and advance to the Sweet 16.

And after finishing fourth in the SEC last season, the Volunteers were picked as the favorite to win the conference this year by media members at SEC Media Days last month. Why’s everyone buying stock in Rick Barnes and Tennessee?

It starts with the fact that the Vols retained a ton of production as they return three of their top four leading scorers, led by veteran guard Santiago Vescovi, who averaged 12.5 points per game last season. Meanwhile, returning guys like Zakai Zeigler (10.7 ppg) and Josiah-Jordan James (10 ppg) also helps.

Losing Olivier Nkamhoua to Michigan via the transfer portal was the biggest hit to Tennessee’s roster coming into this season as Nkamhoua averaged 10.8 points per game in 2022-23.

The fact that Tennessee’s leading scorer averaged just 12.5 points per game last season tells the story of last year’s squad in Knoxville. The Vols weren’t known for their high-octane offense, but rather their stingy defense. Tennessee gave up an average of just 57.9 points per game last fall, ranking as the third-best defense in the nation.

In a bid to help with its scoring slump, Tennessee dipped into the transfer portal and plucked out Dalton Knecht, a senior guard out of Northern Colorado who averaged 20.2 points per game and 7.2 rebounds per game.

And while this matchup stands alone as an intriguing one with the prospect of Auburn’s high-powered offense going toe to toe with Tennessee’s stiff defense, the timing of it is huge as Pearl and the Tigers will be tasked with visiting Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville just two weeks before the SEC Tournament in Nashville.

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